Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin take on the lead role of Logan Mountstuart in William Boyd's adaptation of his best-selling novel Any Human Heart. From one man's emotional, tumultuous and unpredictable journey through the 20th century comes a funny, moving and ambitious four-part drama, coming to Channel 4 in 2010.

Told through Logan's intimate journals - beginning with the idealism and arrogance of his youth, through triumphs and tragedies to the calm wisdom of his twilight years - his story reveals that all our lives are ultimately random and defined by luck and seemingly inconsequential choices.

Matthew Macfadyen takes Logan through middle age from the thrill and heartache of true love and the birth of his first child to scandal in the New York art scene in the '50s and '60s, via the horrors of war. Newcomer, Sam Claflin embodies the idealism, vitality and naivety of the young Logan, where his lust for life and women truly begins as a student in Oxford and then Paris in the 1920s.

William Boyd says: "I am both thrilled and exhilarated at the prospect of these three sensational actors taking on the role of Logan Mountstuart as we follow him through the 20th Century on the emotional, dramatic and rackety journey that is his long and tumultuous life."

Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander as the Duke & Duchess of Windsor

Throughout his life it is Logan's personal relationships which define him; through numerous flirtations and affairs to finding true love. Logan also has encounters with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Tom Hollander and Gillian Anderson); Ernest Hemingway and Ian Fleming (Tobias Menzies). Boyd's epic tale charts an entire existence and in doing so reveals that all our lives are ultimately random, defined by luck and seemingly inconsequential choices. As Logan himself says; "I am all of these different people. All these different people are me."

"Doing this role made me more nervous than I have been doing anything. I hope I don't make an idiot of myself."(Gillian discussing her role as Wallis Simpson)

The women in Logan's life are many and varied; newcomer Emerald Fennell plays the young writer's wife, Lottie, Hayley Atwell plays Freya; Logan's mistress and the love of his life, Natasha Little plays third wife Alannah and Kim Cattrall takes on the role of older Logan's glamorous lover Gloria.

Other cast in the ambitious four part serial include: Julian Rhind-Tutt playing revolutionary John Vivian, the older versions of Logan's two best friends are played by Ed Stoppard as Ben and Samuel West as Peter. The cast also includes Freddie Fox, Hugh Skinner, Charity Wakefield and Lydia Wilson.

Pioneering 18th-century barrister William Garrow revisits the Old Bailey to champion the rights of prisoners against the power of the State, as BBC One's acclaimed drama Garrow's Law returns for a second series.

Garrow’s Law will return to BBC One for 4 episodes on November 14

A year has passed since viewers last saw him and, in this time, Garrow's reputation for pioneering advocacy has intensified – but so too has his opposition to the legal and political establishment.

A stellar cast returns for the second series of RTS (Royal Television Society) award-winning Garrow's Law, lead by Andrew Buchan (Cranford,), Alun Armstrong (Aristocrats, Little Dorrit), Lyndsey Marshal (The Young Visiters, Rome), Aidan McArdle (Jane Eyre) and Rupert Graves (The Forsyte Saga, Sherlock).

Themes of slavery, homosexuality, mistreatment of disabled naval veterans and women as property are explored in this new series. And Garrow finds himself in the dock at Westminster Hall as the series comes to a thrilling climax.

Garrow's Law co-creator Tony Marchant explains the inspirations and motivations for the highly-anticipated second series:

"Garrow finds the enemies he has made in the first series determined to undermine and ruin him. They cannot damage his reputation as a barrister so they try to bring down Garrow the man – to bankrupt and disgrace him because of his personal life.

"The issues we've explored in the second series are quite weighty – slavery, through a massacre prosecuted as an insurance fraud; the grave implications of being gay in the 18th century; the mistreatment of injured and disabled sailors in war campaigns; and, through Lady Sarah, the characterisation of women as property.

"There's an immediacy about the Old Bailey online records, with transcripts of the actual trials which makes it both a fantastic oral and written history of those who went through the Criminal justice system, a riveting insight into the lives of ordinary people who were caught up in it and, of course, a revelation about the way that law was conducted then.

"The older you get the more interested in the past you become and in this case it's been a real eye opener to see history recorded from the 'bottom up', from the mouths of those that history books normally ignore.

"Garrow is an impetuous and impassioned campaigner for justice within the law but realises that cannot happen without challenging the status quo in society. His anger and fervour sometimes makes him his own worst enemy but his loyalty to his mentor Southouse and his love for Lady Sarah make him vulnerable and prey to those enemies who are determined to remove him from the Old Bailey.

"The relationship between Garrow and Lady Sarah has become more full blooded. Ironically, this is because of the conspiracies and machinations of others, including Sir Arthur Hill, Lady Sarah's husband – they are thrown together more closely because of his insane jealously.

"The emotional turmoil Garrow is going through begins to affect the conduct of his cases and sometimes, the distractions in his personal life threaten his ability to save defendants at the old Bailey. The stakes are higher for both him and Lady Sarah, the dice more loaded against them – emotionally, personally and legally.

"Sir Arthur pursues two suits or two punishments against Sarah and Garrow. Against Sarah, he institutes 'separation by bed and board' – a vengeful action that will leave her virtually penniless, unable to remarry and, worst of all, having to relinquish her rights to her son.

"Against Garrow, Hill seeks damages for the act of 'criminal conversation'– a term meaning sexual intercourse with another man's wife. The amount of damages claimed against Garrow will be enough to ruin him.

"To write well for any of the characters, whether they are antagonists like Hill or protagonists like Garrow, you have to empathise absolutely with the situation they are in and simply inhabit their skin – Hill's paranoid jealousy or Garrow's intemperate pursuit of justice.

"What I like about Garrow is that he is ruthlessly outspoken in court, outrageously so sometimes, equally undiplomatic outside of court, has a gauche vulnerability when it comes to matters of the heart and acts like a wayward son to his mentor, Southouse."

The four-part factual drama is inspired by the life of pioneering barrister William Garrow (Andrew Buchan). Garrow's Law is set against a backdrop of corruption and social injustice, based on real legal cases from the late 18th century.

In an age where the defence counsel acted in the minority of cases, William Garrow championed the underdog and pioneered the rigorous cross-examination of prosecution witnesses that paved the way for our modern legal system today.

I can't wait to get the DVD to be able to see all the special features! I DO hope that they include plenty of extra features including the videos that are on ITV's website but unavailable to the rest of us outside the UK.

Here's a Vanity Fair photo shoot with Kaya Scodelario who will be portraying Catherine Earnshaw in the upcoming Wuthering Heights (2011) being directed by Andrea Arnold. It began shooting September 20th, 2010.

Michael Roberts photographed Kaya for the November 2010 issue of Vanity Fair, playing off of the idea of Audrey Hepburn's Funny Face.

It was wonderful to see all the cast members from the much beloved film THE SOUND OF MUSIC reunite and share stories about the movie that is still growing strong after 45 years! Here are some images from their appearance on Oprah's talk show as well as video from Youtube...(which will probably be removed soon so watch while you can!)

Watching Downton Abbey has increased my fascination for this time period and had me thinking about other costume dramas that have been set in Edwardian times.King Edward VII's reign (1901-1910) was short in comparison to the 63 year reign of his mother Queen Victoria. While she was known for her strict standards of morality, Edward was associated with La Belle Epoque, an epoch of beautiful clothes and the peak of luxury living for a select few. These years of easy living would change drastically with the onset of World War I in 1914. [fashion-era] The Edwardian era is usually defined beyond Edward's death and may include the years 1901 -1914.